BURNABY, British Columbia, Oct. 04, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — D-Wave Systems Inc., the leader in quantum computing systems and software, today announced the immediate availability of free, real-time access to the D-Wave Leap™ Quantum Application Environment (QAE). Leap is the first cloud-based QAE providing real-time access to a live quantum computer. In addition to access, Leap provides open-source development tools, interactive demos and coding examples, educational resources, and knowledge base articles. Designed for developers, researchers, and forward-thinking enterprises, Leap enables collaboration through its online community, helping Leap users write and run quantum applications to accelerate the development of real-world applications.

Leap QAE provides:

Free access: free, real-time access to a D-Wave 2000Q quantum computer to submit and run applications, receiving solutions in seconds

Familiar software: the open-source Ocean software development kit (SDK), available on GitHub and in Leap, has built-in templates for algorithms, as well as the ability to develop new code with the familiar programming language Python

Hands-on coding: interactive examples in the form of Jupyter notebooks with live code, equations, visualizations, and narrative text to jumpstart quantum application development

Learning resources: comprehensive live demos and educational resources to help developers get up to speed quickly on how to write applications for a quantum computer

Community support: community and technical forums to enable easy developer collaboration

Leap builds on D-Wave’s continuing work to drive real-world quantum application development. To-date, D-Wave customers have developed 100 early applications for problems spanning airline scheduling, election modeling, quantum chemistry simulation, automotive design, preventative healthcare, logistics, and more. Many have also developed software tools that make it easier to develop new applications. These existing applications and tools, along with access to a growing community, give developers a wealth of examples to learn from and build upon.

“Our job is to sift through the sands of data to find the gold—information that will help our manufacturing customers increase equipment efficiency and reduce defects. With D-Wave Leap, we are showing we can solve computationally difficult problems today, while also learning and preparing for new approaches to AI and machine learning that quantum computing will allow,” said Abhi Rampal, CEO of Solid State AI. “We started with quantum computing on D-Wave because we knew we wanted to be where the market was going, and we continue because we want to be a leader in finding commercial applications for the technology. With Leap, D-Wave is making systems, software, and support available to help developers and innovators commercialize quantum applications.”

“We are developing innovative new materials to solve large-scale industrial problems using our proprietary Materials Discovery Platform. Part of our platform relies on first-principles materials simulations, requiring exceptional amounts of computational processing power. I firmly believe that advancements in quantum computing will accelerate our business growth, by accelerating our platform. By providing access to a live quantum computer, D-Wave Leap provides a robust environment for developers to learn, code, and teach, furthering the quantum ecosystem,” said Michael Helander, CEO, OTI Lumionics. “Today, we are able to use the D-Wave 2000Q as a powerful optimizer to help calculate the electronic structure of industrially-relevant sized molecules, a first for a quantum computer. As the community grows, shares, and innovates, the possibilities for materials discovery are endless. I expect D‑Wave to continue to innovate with us, enabling the discovery of countless new materials using quantum computing.”

“Entrepreneurs are recognizing that quantum computing will help them unlock new technologies, solutions, and business. At the Creative Destruction Lab (CDL), we have more than 20 companies as part of our Quantum Machine Learning Incubator Stream, with growing interest from prospective ventures,” said Khalid Kurji, Senior Venture Manager at the CDL. “D-Wave’s Quantum Application Environment is central to developers helping developers, and will play an important role not just in the growth of ideas we have today, but in the fostering of innovations for tomorrow.”

“Every technology ecosystem begins by giving smart developers access, tools, and training. Leap eliminates the barrier to entry for quantum application development and deployment by providing live developer access and extensive tools and resources,” said Alan Baratz, D-Wave EVP R&D and chief product officer. “Leap can enable hundreds of thousands of developers to write and run quantum applications, without having to learn the complex physics that underpins quantum computers. Any one of these developers could write the first killer quantum application, solving complex global problems with quantum computing.”

“The next frontier of quantum computing is quantum application development. While we continue to advance our industry-leading quantum technology, our goal with Leap is to ignite a new generation of developers who will explore, experiment, and ultimately build our quantum application future,” said Vern Brownell, D-Wave CEO. “Since day one, D-Wave has been focused on fueling real-world quantum application development. We believe that the Leap Quantum Application Environment is one of the most important steps toward realizing our vision of practical quantum computing to date.”

Leap offers both free and paid plans designed for individual developers, commercial enterprises, and for government, research, and education sectors. To find out more and get started using Leap, visit the D-Wave website at www.dwavesys.com.

Leap Developer Feedback:“Leap is the only Quantum Application Environment that gives developers access to a real quantum computer. Today, you can’t get that from any other provider of quantum hardware at the scale needed to solve real problems,” said Thomas Phillips, CTO of Ridgeback Network Defense. ”It’s incredibly exciting to be able to have access to something that before now most developers couldn’t access, and see the quantum computer in action. Because the programming is intuitive, the D-Wave approach allows me to map familiar algorithms for very hard problems directly onto the system, which is nearly impossible to do on other quantum systems. And most importantly, I can now tackle exceptionally difficult cybersecurity problems I’ve only imagined solving before now.”

“As a long-time software developer, I leapt at the chance to be part of the beta program and get access to a real quantum computer for the first time,” said Scott Davis, independent software consultant. “The online demos, Jupyter notebooks, and documentation gave me a jump-start. Soon, I was writing Python programs using the Ocean software development kit and running experiments on D-Wave’s quantum computer with more than 2000 qubits. In just four weeks, I was able to implement a basic proof of a concept I had been thinking about for 17 years.”

“QC Ware works with enterprises to build quantum software applications. QC Ware’s customers in aerospace, automotive, and financial services typically gravitate towards D-Wave because of the large problem sizes the D-Wave 2000Q can support,” said Juan Adame, quantum software engineer, QC Ware. “With Leap, the user experience and new Ocean software tools will help early developers. And for developers who have quantum experience, the Leap Quantum Application Environment expands the lower level embedding functionality for very finely grained control of how their problem gets mapped on specific physical qubits.”

About D-Wave Systems Inc.D-Wave is the leader in the development and delivery of quantum computing systems and software, and the world’s only commercial supplier of quantum computers. Our mission is to unlock the power of quantum computing for the world. We believe that quantum computing will enable solutions to the most challenging national defense, scientific, technical, and commercial problems. D-Wave’s systems are being used by some of the world’s most advanced organizations, including Lockheed Martin, Google, NASA Ames, USRA, USC, Los Alamos National Laboratory and Oak Ridge National Laboratory. With headquarters near Vancouver, Canada, D-Wave’s US operations are based in Palo Alto, CA and Hanover, MD. D-Wave has a blue-chip investor base including PSP Investments, Goldman Sachs, Bezos Expeditions, DFJ, In-Q-Tel, BDC Capital, Growthworks, 180 Degree Capital Corp., and Kensington Capital Partners Limited. For more information, visit: www.dwavesys.com.

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Jonathan Yaniv

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